Fear of humans pervades the South African savanna

Fear of the human ‘super predator’

Peer-Reviewed Publication

CELL PRESS

 

VIDEO: WHEN RECORDINGS OF HUMANS TALKING AT CONVERSATIONAL VOLUMES START PLAYING, SEVERAL DIFFERENT SPECIES OF ANIMALS RUN AWAY. view more 

CREDIT: CURRENT BIOLOGY, ZANETTE ET AL.

Research publishing October 5 in the journal Current Biology finds that mammals living in South Africa’s Greater Kruger National Park, home to one of the world’s largest remaining lion populations, are far more afraid of hearing human voices than lion vocalizations or hunting sounds such as dogs barking or gunshots.

Recent global surveys show that humans kill prey at much higher rates than other predators. “We usually think about the top of the food chain being large carnivore predators,” says first author Liana Y. Zanette (@ZanetteLab), a conservation biologist at Western University in Canada. “But what we're interested in is the unique ecology of humans as predators in the system, because humans are super lethal.”

“Normally, if you’re a mammal, you’re not going to die of disease or hunger. The thing that actually ends your life is going to be a predator, and the bigger you are the bigger the predator that finishes you off,” says co-author Michael Clinchy, also a conservation biologist at Western University. “Lions are the biggest group-hunting land predator on the planet, and thus ought to be the scariest, and so we’re comparing the fear of humans versus lions to find out if humans are scarier than the scariest non-human predator.”

As part of their South African mega-experiment, Zanette, Clinchy, and colleagues observed how 19 different mammal species reacted to a series of recordings, including human voices, lion vocalizations, barking dogs, and gunshots. The human-voice clips, which were at conversational volume levels, came from radio or television recordings of people speaking the four most used languages in the region, including Tsonga, Northern Sotho, English, and Afrikaans. The dogs and gunshots were meant to represent sounds associated with human hunting, and the lion vocalizations, curated with the help of lion expert and co-author Craig Packer of the University of Minnesota, were meant to signal the presence of the top predator in the region.

“The key thing is that the lion vocalizations are of them snarling and growling, in ‘conversation’ as it were, not roaring at each other,” says Clinchy. “That way the lion vocalizations are directly comparable to those of the humans speaking conversationally.”

To observe and record the animals’ behaviors in response to the recordings, the authors used custom waterproof systems that combine a camera trap and a speaker—and have enough battery life to record all day and night for many months.  The study was conducted in the dry season, and the systems were placed at waterholes to capture recordings of all the animals coming to drink. By the end of the experiment, the team had 15,000 videos to sift through.

“We put the camera in a bear box, not because there are bears out in South Africa, but because of the hyenas and leopards that like to chew on them,” says Zanette. “One night, the lion recording made this elephant so angry that it charged and just smashed the whole thing.”

The researchers found that animals were twice as likely to run and abandon waterholes in response to hearing humans compared to hearing lions or hunting sounds. Fully 95% of species, including giraffes, leopards, hyenas, zebras, kudu, warthog, impala, elephants, and rhinoceroses, ran more often or abandoned waterholes faster in response to humans than in response to lions.

“There’s this idea that the animals are going to habituate to humans if they’re not hunted. But we’ve shown that this isn’t the case.,” says Clinchy. “The fear of humans is ingrained and pervasive, so this is something that we need to start thinking about seriously for conservation purposes.”

The team is now investigating whether their custom sound systems can be used to deliberately steer endangered species such as the Southern white rhino away from known poaching areas in South Africa. So far, efforts to keep rhinos away from certain areas through the use of human voices have been successful.

“I think the pervasiveness of the fear throughout the savannah mammal community is a real testament to the environmental impact that humans have,” says Zanette. “Not just through habitat loss and climate change and species extinction, which is all important stuff. But just having us out there on that landscape is enough of a danger signal that they respond really strongly. They are scared to death of humans, way more than any other predator.”

###

This research was supported by funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the South African Agency for Science and Technology Advancement National Research Foundation.

Current Biology, Zanette et al. “Fear of the human ‘super predator’ pervades the South African savanna.” https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(23)01169-7

Current Biology (@CurrentBiology), published by Cell Press, is a bimonthly journal that features papers across all areas of biology. Current Biology strives to foster communication across fields of biology, both by publishing important findings of general interest and through highly accessible front matter for non-specialists. Visit: http://www.cell.com/current-biology. To receive Cell Press media alerts, contact press@cell.com.

Elephant charges and breaks th [VIDEO] | EurekAlert! Science News Releases

Elephant charges and breaks the camera 

In response to lion noises, an elephant charges and breaks the camera trap/speaker system.

Lead author, Liana Zanette, sets up the camera trap and speaker system in South Africa's Greater Kruger National Park.

CREDIT

Current Biology, Zanette et al.

JOURNAL

Current Biology

DOI

10.1016/j.cub.2023.08.089 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Fear of the human ‘‘super predator’’ pervades the South African savanna

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

5-Oct-2023

Fear of human “super predator” pervades South African savanna

Elephants, rhinos, giraffes and other wildlife dread people far more than lions

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN ONTARIO

 

VIDEO: 

GIRAFFE, LEOPARD, HYENA, ZEBRA, KUDU, WARTHOG AND IMPALA RUNNING IN RESPONSE TO HEARING HUMANS.

view more 

CREDIT: LIANA ZANETTE / WESTERN UNIVERSITY

---

JOURNAL

Current Biology

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Fear of the human ‘‘super predator’’ pervades the South African savanna

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

5-Oct-2023

Rhinoceros and elephant respon [VIDEO] | 

Elephants attack lion vocaliza [VIDEO] | 

Lion menacing

CREDIT

Daniel Rosengren

Elephant still image from camera recording

CREDIT

Liana Zanette / Western University

An automated camera-speaker (labelled) used for the study.  

An automated camera-speaker used for the study.  

CREDIT

Liana Zanette / Western University

Prigozhin’s Rising Cut Russian Supply Lines to Ukraine, Ensuring Kyiv can Win the War if It Acts Quickly, Inozemtsev Says

Ukrainian commander on possible Wagner attack from Belarus: ‘Nothing but suicide’

Founder of Wagner private mercenary group Yevgeny Prigozhin speaks with servicemen during withdrawal of his forces from Bakhmut. (Reuters)

Tuqa Khalid, Al Arabiya English
Published: 25 June ,2023

Commander of the Joint Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine warned on Sunday that should Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin try to lead his Wagner forces in an attack on Ukraine from Belarus, it would be “nothing but suicide.”

Commander Serhii Naiev said that Ukraine’s northern border – shared with Belarus – remained “stable and under control,” according to the Ukrainian military’s Telegram account.

He added: “Our troops continue to build up defense equipment. All services, from intelligence to engineering troops, are operating in enhanced mode. Currently, there is no increase in equipment or manpower of the enemy. The state border is under reliable protection 24/7.”

He stressed that should a cross-border attack be launched from the Belarusian side; the Ukrainian forces were armed and ready to counter any such attack.

“If this happens and the enemy tries to cross the state border, it will be nothing but suicide for them. Our soldiers are ready to give a decent response to anyone who dares to cross the state border with weapons in hand.

Former British Army chief of general staff General Richard Dannatt had earlier said in an interview with Sky News that Prigozhin’s presence in Belarus was a “matter of some concern,” as it was quite possible that Russia may use Wagner forces to try and take the Ukrainian capital again.

Russian forces stationed for Moscow's defense pulled back on Sunday when the Wagner mercenaries, led by Prigozhin, ceased their approach towards the capital. Prior to this, the mercenaries had seemingly seized the Russian military headquarters in Rostov-on-Don, a center that oversees Ukraine operations, and advanced towards Moscow with little resistance, successfully downing several helicopters and a military plane.

A surprising development occurred when a deal was brokered for Prigozhin's move to Belarus, leading to the dropping of charges against him for instigating an armed uprising, as stated by Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman. As a result of this agreement, Prigozhin ordered his troops to return to their bases.

Prigozhin’s Rising Cut Russian Supply Lines to Ukraine, Ensuring Kyiv can Win the War if It Acts Quickly, Inozemtsev Says

            Staunton, June 25 – In a single day, Prigozhin and his Wagner PMC sliced through the supply lines of the Russian army fighting in Ukraine, putting that army at risk of rapid defeat if as is likely the Ukrainian side recognizes what has happened in the last 24 hours and attacks Russian forces at strategic locations, Vladislav Inozemtsev says.

            Because of what Prigozhin and company did, the Moscow economist and political commentator says, the war in Ukraine “is over.” The Russian forces will now lose it very quickly; and therefore what is happening is very good for Ukraine (novayagazeta.eu/articles/2023/06/24/putin-konchilsia).

            “The Russian army now fighting in Ukraine requires a huge logistical system,” Inozemtsev continues. And the main routes of this supply chain were “destroyed in one day” by Prigozhin who disrupted those lines over more than 1000 kilometers. “I think that the Ukrainians cannot fail to take advantage of this situation.”

            The Ukrainians need to act very quickly as Moscow may seek to recover what it has lost, but the Prigozhin rising showed how pathetic the Russian system has become under Putin and the incompetent people he has put in charge of the military. And perhaps worse for Putin is the fact that everyone can see that he can’t control the situation.

            As the latest Russian anecdote puts it, in 2021, Russia had the second strongest army in the world. By 2022, it had the second strongest one in Ukraine; and now in 2023, the Russian army is the second strongest one in Russia itself.” Russians are laughing about this, and that laughter is about Putin.

Op-Ed: Wagner deal — A  charade?

By Paul Wallis

DIGITAL JOURNAL
Published June 24, 2023

Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin has said his troops had taken control of Russia’s main military command centre for Ukraine operations as well as an airbase in the city - Copyright AFP STRINGER

There is never anything simple or straightforward about Russian history or politics. The furious “march on Moscow” and the rhetoric of the last 48 hours have vanished in a strange deal conducted out of thin air. Prigozhin goes to Belarus and Wagner returns to the camps.

That suddenly solves everything.

How does it solve anything? Prigozhin spent the last two days complaining about a Russian attack on his troops which killed “huge numbers” of Wagner mercenaries. That could well have been staged. There are plenty of spare body parts around in the region.

Prigozhin was furious, at least in public. He said they wanted to disband Wagner. He’s been verbally attacking the Russian Ministry of Defense for months. His troops took Rostov in a few hours. They have now returned to field camps, locations unspecified.

Putin responded in kind to the “mutiny” and accused Prigozhin of treason. The FSB called for Prigozhin’s arrest. That was rather odd because if anyone was going to arrest him, it would have had to be them. It seemed things were about to come to a head. An actual civil war seemed quite likely.

…Then Guest Contestant Lukashenko steps in and all is well? How? Prigozhin says he agreed to this deal to prevent bloodshed. It’s a bit like a hyena asking for a salad. The Wagner Group is famous for causing bloodshed, not preventing it.

This video grab taken from handout footage posted on June 24, 2023, on the Telegram channel @razgruzka_vagnera shows Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin (C) walking in the city of Rostov-on-Don – Copyright TELEGRAM / @razgruzka_vagnera/AFP Handout

Belarus just happens to be the conveniently located theme park that is taking delivery of Russian nuclear missiles. It’s slated to become part of Russia again at some point. Belarussian fighters are fighting the Russians in Ukraine. Russian troops were also sent to Belarus recently.

Which leads to a pretty obvious question – What’s really happening in Russia?

Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin said his forces have entered the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don after vowing to topple the top military brass 

– Copyright AFP/File INTI OCON

A few pointers:

Putin was almost at actual war with his one and only successful military commander.

Putin’s own position is not secure, according to observers. He has to establish control and his own credibility. For the period of the “mutiny” he was just issuing statements, not conducting countermeasures. This is very much out of character, and nothing like his public image.

Nobody got assassinated, which is also most unusual.

Wagner forces have left Ukraine just as the Ukrainian counteroffensive begins.
The Wagner troops are severely worn and torn after months of heavy fighting.
The Russian army is on full defensive.

The Russian campaign in Ukraine has failed disastrously and is getting worse. They need to get out.

Wagner troops were able to move around with ease behind Russian lines with no opposition worth reporting.

Wagner “took” Rostov, a fairly sizeable city, with ease and trundled to within 200km of Moscow without any opposition at all.

Lukashenko doesn’t have the clout to turn on a light switch in Russia.

Russia publicized the “mutiny” on state broadcasts and social media. It’s not often any Russian government admits to any problems. Why the sudden PR campaign for Prigozhin?

All this played out in 48 hours.

How believable is any of this? A charade is one description.

A few more peculiar issues:Putin could have used the “mutiny” or something like it as an excuse to redeploy a lot of troops back to Russia and rebuild internal security without actually admitting defeat. He’s not doing that.

A few weeks ago, anti-Putin forces took areas around Belgorod and forced a Russian military response. That’s now a non-topic in the news. This just emphasizes the inherent instability in Russia before the Wagner mutiny.

Wagner can be seen to be defused as a risk with any supposed deal, whether any of this is real or not.

Prigozhin must have got something out of this deal, but what?

Belarus is progressively filling up with Russian troops, probably meaning backup for the projected Russian annexation or “reunification” as they call it.

Wagner can back up any Russian moves in Belarus or a new front against Ukraine to take the pressure off the Ukrainian counteroffensive.

There are many other major players in Russia. Who else is involved? Kremlin factions?

 The organized crime groups which control a lot of oil and black market assets? These people don’t play charades. They don’t like anything that disrupts business, either.
The much-disaffected, utterly humiliated and demoralized Russian army may not back Putin.

It just can’t be this simple. This complex pantomime indicates a lot of internal forces in play. Everything is still up in the air. Russia is falling to bits. The only question now is in what way it falls to bits.

Hyenas die also in road accidents

What factors influence the risk of fatal collisions between vehicles and spotted hyenas in the Serengeti? Findings from a long-term study over three decades

Peer-Reviewed Publication

LEIBNIZ INSTITUTE FOR ZOO AND WILDLIFE RESEARCH (IZW)

 

IMAGE: TWO ADULT FEMALE SPOTTED HYENAS KILLED BY A CAR ON A MAIN GRAVEL ROAD IN THE SERENGETI NATIONAL PARK. view more 

CREDIT: SONJA METZGER/LEIBNIZ-IZW

The Serengeti in Tanzania is home to large populations of wildlife species, including spotted hyenas (Crocuta ocaliz). While many human activities are prohibited in the national park, driving is allowed in and through the protected area. Using a 34-year long-term data set, a scientific team from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW) analysed which factors contribute significantly to hyenas being run over and killed by vehicles. The results of the analyses indicate that mainly two factors play a role: firstly, the characteristics of the road and secondly, the annual migration of the large ungulate herds in the Serengeti and the associated seasonal changes in the ocalization of the prey animals of the spotted hyenas. These findings provide new insights into which ecological and individual factors influence predators’ risk of fatal collisions with vehicles and were published in the scientific journal Biological Conservation.

 

Even in protected areas, many wild animals are killed by vehicles worldwide, and these negative impacts of roads continue to increase due to the rise of human populations on the borders of protected areas and the growing interest in wildlife tourism. However, the factors that contribute to fatal collisions between vehicles and wildlife are still poorly understood. 

As part of a long-term study in the Serengeti National Park, the Leibniz-IZW scientists found a total of 104 spotted hyenas that had been run over between 1989 and 2023. Based on these cases, they investigated the question of which spatial and temporal factors particularly contribute to spotted hyenas being run over and killed by vehicles, and whether spotted hyenas of one age group, sex or social status are particularly affected. Long-term studies of this kind are rare. The Serengeti is criss-crossed by a network of roads. The main roads are gravel roads used not only by tourist vehicles, scientists and park staff, but also by trucks, supply vehicles and national bus lines throughout the year. In addition, there are a large number of unpaved wildlife observation and camp access “tracks”.

Overall, two factors proved to be crucial. Firstly, hyenas were more often run over on main roads than on “tracks”, probably because there is more traffic on main roads and vehicles travel faster there. Secondly, the timing and location of fatal collisions varied with the seasonal migration of the large herds of ungulates (wildebeest, zebra and Thomson’s gazelles), which are the main prey of Serengeti spotted hyenas. The results are consistent with other studies showing that the risk of being killed by a vehicle increases with the mobility and distance travelled by the animals. In addition, killed hyenas were found particularly close to watercourses, human dwellings, to which the hyenas are presumably attracted by the presence of human food waste.

“Contrary to expectations, the seasonal variation in the number of tourists in the region did not seem to play a role in the level of mortality,” says Marwan Naciri, who joined the Leibniz-IZW for this project and is the lead author of the publication. 

A special feature of the dataset used in this study is that some of the hyenas that were run over were individually known and therefore factors of their life history could be included in the analysis. For example, the analyses show that adult females were most frequently run over, probably because they are the ones who regularly have to travel long distances between their den and migrating prey herds in order to be able to hunt on the one hand and nurse their cubs left at the den on the other.

“Injuries from illegally laid wire snares also particularly affect adult female hyenas, as we found in a previous study,” says Leibniz-IZW scientist Sarah Benhaiem, involved in both research projects. In summary, roadkills and death by snares could be one of the main causes of death for adult hyenas in the Serengeti.  It is still unclear whether this mortality, which mainly affects adult females, threatens the continued existence of the spotted hyena population in the Serengeti.

Road networks in the Serengenti are likely to expand in the coming decades, including in protected areas. Knowledge of the factors that contribute to fatal collisions between vehicles and wildlife, such as road characteristics, will help design effective mitigation measures, such as reducing the speed and number of vehicles on main roads. Good planning of road construction and implementation of mitigation measures will be essential to ensure wildlife conservation in protected areas.

Publication

Naciri M, Planillo A, Gicquel M, East ML, Hofer H, Metzger S, Benhaiem S (2023): Three decades of wildlife-vehicle collisions in a protected area: Main roads and long-distance commuting trips to migratory prey increase spotted hyena roadkills in the Serengeti. Biological Conservation 279, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2023.109950.

 

Benhaiem S, Kaidatzi S, Hofer H, East ML (2023): Long-term reproductive costs of snare injuries in a keystone terrestrial by-catch species. Anim Conserv 26, 61-71. https://doi.org/10.1111/acv.12798.

Photo caption

Two adult female spotted hyenas killed by a car on a main gravel road in the Serengeti National Park. Photo: Sonja Metzger

Contacts

Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW)
in the Forschungsverbund Berlin e.V.
Alfred-Kowalke-Str. 17, 10315 Berlin

Dr. Sarah Benhaiem (German, English and French)
Scientist Dept. Ecological Dynamics 
Tel.: +49 30 5168-466
E-Mail: benhaiem@izw-berlin.de

Steven Seet (German, English)
Head Science Communication 
Tel.: +49 30 5168-125
E-Mail: seet@izw-berlin.de

---

JOURNAL

Biological Conservation

DOI

10.1016/j.biocon.2023.109950 

ARTICLE TITLE

Three decades of wildlife-vehicle collisions in a protected area: Main roads and long-distance commuting trips to migratory prey increase spotted hyena roadkills in the Serengeti

2023 public domain debuts include last Sherlock Holmes work


A Museum of London employee poses for photographers next to an 1897 oil on canvas portrait of Sherlock Holmes author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle by illustrator Sidney Paget on display as part of the exhibition "Sherlock Holmes: The Man Who Never Lived and Will Never Die" at the Museum of London in London, Oct. 16, 2014. Sherlock Holmes is finally free to the public in 2023. The long dispute on contested copyright on Doyle's tales of a whip-smart detective will come to an end in 2022, as the final Sherlock Holmes stories by Doyle will be released on Saturday, Dec. 31, as copyrights from 1927 expire on Jan. 1, 2023. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, File)


WASHINGTON (AP) — Sherlock Holmes is finally free to the American public in 2023.

The long-running contested copyright dispute over Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s tales of a whipsmart detective — which has even ensnared Enola Holmes — will finally come to an end as the 1927 copyrights expiring Jan. 1 include Conan Doyle’s last Sherlock Holmes work.

Alongside the short-story collection “The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes,” books such as Virginia Woolf’s “To The Lighthouse,” Ernest Hemingway’s “Men Without Women,” William Faulkner’s “Mosquitoes” and Agatha Christie’s “The Big Four” — an Hercule Poirot mystery — will become public domain as the calendar turns to 2023.

Once a work enters the public domain it can legally be shared, performed, reused, repurposed or sampled without permission or cost. The works from 1927 were originally supposed to be copyrighted for 75 years, but the 1998 Copyright Term Extension Act delayed opening them up for an additional 20 years.

While many prominent works on the list used those extra two decades to earn their copyright holders good money, a Duke University expert says the copyright protections also applied to “all of the works whose commercial viability had long subsided.”

“For the vast majority—probably 99%—of works from 1927, no copyright holder financially benefited from continued copyright. Yet they remained off limits, for no good reason,” Jennifer Jenkins, director of Duke’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain, wrote in a blog post heralding “Public Domain Day 2023.”

That long U.S. copyright period meant many works that would now become available have long since been lost, because they were not profitable to maintain by the legal owners, but couldn’t be used by others. On the Duke list are such “lost” films like Victor Fleming’s “The Way of All Flesh” and Tod Browning’s “London After Midnight.”

1927 portended the silent film era’s end with the release of the first “talkie” — a film with dialogue in it. That was “The Jazz Singer,” the historic first feature-length film with synchronized dialogue also notorious for Al Jolson’s blackface performance.

In addition to the Alan Crosland-directed film, other movies like “Wings” — directed by William A. Wellman and the “outstanding production” winner at the very first Oscars — and Fritz Lang’s seminal science-fiction classic “Metropolis” will enter the public domain.

Musical compositions — the music and lyrics found on sheet music, not the sound recordings — on the list include hits from Broadway musicals like “Funny Face” and jazz standards from the likes of legends like Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, in addition to Irving Berlin’s “Puttin’ on the Ritz” and “(I Scream You Scream, We All Scream for) Ice Cream” by Howard Johnson, Billy Moll and Robert A. King.

READ MORE– Silent films to live on in movie theater lobby card project
– 'Pooh,' 'Sun Also Rises' among works going public in 2022


Duke’s Center for the Public Domain highlighted notable books, movies and musical compositions entering the public domain — just a fraction of the thousands due to be unleashed in 2023.

BOOKS

— “The Gangs of New York,” by Herbert Asbury (original publication)

— “Death Comes for the Archbishop,” by Willa Cather

— “The Big Four,” by Agatha Christie

— “The Tower Treasure,” the first Hardy Boys mystery by the pseudonymous Franklin W. Dixon

— “The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes,” by Arthur Conan Doyle

— “Copper Sun,” by Countee Cullen

— “Mosquitoes,” by William Faulkner

— “Men Without Women,” by Ernest Hemingway

— “Der Steppenwolf,” by Herman Hesse (in German)

— “Amerika,” by Franz Kafka (in German)

— “Now We Are Six,” by A.A. Milne with illustrations from E.H. Shepard

— “Le Temps retrouvé,” by Marcel Proust (in French)

— “Twilight Sleep,” by Edith Wharton

— “The Bridge of San Luis Rey,” by Thornton Wilder

— “To The Lighthouse,” by Virginia Woolf

MOVIES

— “7th Heaven,” directed by Frank Borzage

— “The Battle of the Century,” a Laurel and Hardy film directed by Clyde Bruckman

— “The Kid Brother,” directed by Ted Wilde

— “The Jazz Singer,” directed by Alan Crosland

— “The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog,” directed by Alfred Hitchcock

— “Metropolis,” directed by Fritz Lang

— “Sunrise,” directed by F.W. Murnau

— “Upstream,” directed by John Ford

— “Wings,” directed by William A. Wellman

MUSICAL COMPOSITIONS

— “Back Water Blues,” “Preaching the Blues” and “Foolish Man Blues” (Bessie Smith)

— “The Best Things in Life Are Free,” from the musical “Good News” (George Gard “Buddy” De Sylva, Lew Brown, Ray Henderson)

— “Billy Goat Stomp,” “Hyena Stomp” and “Jungle Blues” (Ferdinand Joseph Morton)

— “Black and Tan Fantasy” and “East St. Louis Toodle-O” (Bub Miley, Duke Ellington)

— “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man” and “Ol’ Man River,” from the musical “Show Boat” (Oscar Hammerstein II, Jerome Kern)

— “Diane” (Erno Rapee, Lew Pollack)

— “Funny Face” and “’S Wonderful,” from the musical “Funny Face” (Ira and George Gershwin)

— “(I Scream You Scream, We All Scream for) Ice Cream” (Howard Johnson, Billy Moll, Robert A. King)

— “Mississippi Mud” (Harry Barris, James Cavanaugh)

— “My Blue Heaven” (George Whiting, Walter Donaldson)

— “Potato Head Blues” and Gully Low Blues” (Louis Armstrong)

— “Puttin’ on the Ritz” (Irving Berlin)

— “Rusty Pail Blues,” “Sloppy Water Blues” and “Soothin’ Syrup Stomp” (Thomas Waller)

Tons of other animals have clitorises — and they can teach us more about human sexuality

Paola Rosa-Aquino

Fri, December 23, 2022 

A common death adder hiding in leaf litter.Auscape/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

• Many animals have clitorises, a female sex organ, but experts say they're understudied.

• Scientists recently discovered that female snakes have a two-part clitoris.

• Learning about sex organs in the animal kingdom could teach us more about human anatomy.

Scientists know a lot about animals' male reproductive organs. But compared to the penis, the clitoris has been shrouded in mystery.

Both the penis and the clitoris develop from the same tissue, so they share many similarities. Understanding these structures in depth doesn't only reveal the biology and evolution of sexual organs in the animal kingdom — it can teach us about our own sexuality.

"In biology, we have for many, many decades — even centuries — taken the male body as the norm. Female is like the weird deviation," Patricia Brennan, a genital morphologist at Mount Holyoke College, told Insider."For many years, I've been trying to fill out those unknown areas of female reproductive biology."

She said she's seen more interest in this field in recent years, mostly from young female researchers. "I think they're going to be the ones who are going to be able to answer a lot of questions in upcoming years."

Brennan said the clitoris is found in all terrestrial vertebrates — including lizards, snakes, crocodiles, turtles, and mammals. The only known exception is birds.

From snakes to bottlenose dolphins, here are some of the most impressive and interesting clitorises in the animal kingdom.

Also, in case you were wondering (we were), the plural form of "clitoris" is "clitorises." "Clitorides" is also acceptable if you want to be more technical.

Scientists found clitorises in female snakes

Image of a horizontal slice of a snake’s abdomen, showing its hemiclitoris, labeled HC.Megan Folwell

In December, researchers provided the first major description of the female snake clitoris.

In a study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, scientists looked at nine species of snakes from different areas of the world, including Australia, Central America, and South America.

They found that all female snakes studied have a pair of clitorises — or hemiclitores, a two-part clitoris.

"We found them in all the species we looked at," Brennan, a co-author of the study, said. "It is in fact, the first morphological description of a snake having a clitoris."

Using modern anatomical tools, researchers closely studied the cellular makeup of the clitoris in the Australian death adders, a venomous snake species. They found it was composed of erectile tissue and bundles of nerves.

Brennan said the fact that snake species have intersex individuals has heightened confusion about the creature's genital organs over the years.

Lizards have 2-part clitorises they can tuck back into their body

An arboreal alligator lizard, one of the creatures known to have a two-part clitoris.K Hanley CHDPhoto/Shutterstock

Like snakes, their closests cousins — lizards — have a two-part hemiclitoris.

They were first described in female monitor lizards in 1995 as "miniaturized mirror images of the hemipenes of the males."

Brennan said the hemiclitores of lizards are reversible, meaning they can be flipped out of the body and tucked back in.

Bonobos rub their enlarged clitorises against each other

Bonobos are known for rubbing their clitorises on each other.Thomson Reuters

Female bonobos have enlarged clitorises between their legs. They rub their clitorises on each other — a process called genito-genital rubbing.

Scientists perceive it as greeting or an effort to diffuse tension.

Spotted hyenas have 8-inch clitorises

A female spotted hyena's clitoris may be the largest in the animal kingdom.Eric Lafforgue/Art in All of Us/Corbis via Getty Images

A hyena's clitoris extends approximately 8 inches from her body and comes with a pair of what looks like testicles, but is actually their fused labia, according to researchers. They use it to pee and copulate.

Moreover, the hyena's clitoris also has a birth canal, which is only an inch in diameter, Insider previously reported. Consequently, pushing a cub through this canal can often be fatal.

Bottlenose dolphins have clitorises that might be for sexual pleasure

A bottlenose dolphin pictured in the Moray Firth, Scotland. Researchers believe the dolphin's clitoris provides pleasure during sex.Getty Images

Female bottlenose dolphins have clitorises similar to humans.

In a January 2022 study, Brennan and other researchers analyzed clitorises from 11 female bottlenosed dolphins that died of natural causes.

Their findings suggest that, like those in human females, the dolphin's clitoris provides pleasure during sex.